Company: Caresyntax GmbH
Project: Redesign Perioperative Software (Case study)
Year: 2021
Description: Redesign of CX Prime, a platform to support the full perioperative workflow, from the induction of anesthesia to post-operative care.
Responsibilities: Design Lead, Research, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Prototyping 

Shortly after I joined careyntax GmbH in 2017, I started evaluating qvident and CX Prime. In 2018 I conducted a visual design workshop with stakeholders from different departments of careyntax. The goal was to achieve a common understanding of how caresyntax software products should look and feel in the future. After the workshop I created the first visual concepts for both applications and in early 2019 we started the redesign process of qvident, including interaction and visual design. In preparation for the redesign of CX Prime, I started working on new concepts for interaction and visual design based on the results of the design workshop in 2018 and the redesign of qvident that has already been implemented. This concept is therefore a case study and has not been implemented yet.

Situation

These are two sample pages from CX Prime in 2017. At first glance it looks quite modern, but it actually had a lot of usabilit and visual design issues.

Task

The goal was to redesign the platform regarding with focus on usability and visual improvements.

Action

Heuristic Evaluation & Cognitive Walkthrough

Before I started working on the redesign of CX Prime, I did a heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthough to identify the critical issues regarding usability and user experience. Additionally I collected information about the users of CX Prime, their feedback and needs regarding the software. I also attended two live surgeries in a hospital to see, how our users use the product.

Analysis of old structure & user flow

The structure of the CX Prime user interface was very fragmented. Global functions were spread across the site, there was no visual hierarchy and the workflow was not intuitive and efficient. Contrary to common Windows applications, the application’s minimize and close icon was in the top left corner of the page, which was confusing for some users. Usually, surgeries are divided into three phases: pre-op (planning), intra-op (surgery) and post-op (finish). In CX Prime, 18 steps are required from starting the application (planning) to exporting recorded media items (finish), as the user must always return to the desktop of CX Prime to select the appropriate function for the next step.

Defining global & contextual functions

As mentioned earlier, the structure of the user interface was very fragmented. So I grouped the functions into global and contextual functions. Global functions are always available and contextual functions are only displayed in the respective phase.

Defining new structure & user flow

For the new user interface, I created a phase-based concept and removed the desktop page from CX Prime. I placed global functions on the left side and the application minimize and close icon on top right of the page as this is more common with Windows applications. I divided the content area into three parts, each for a phase of the surgery. The respective contextual functions of each phase are located at the bottom of the page. With the new structure I was able the reduce the number of steps from the start of the application to the export of media items from 18 to 10.

Concept development

While working on the new concept I created several sub-concepts with small differences. I built a simple prototype for each concept to figure out how it feels to navigate between the different pages of CX Prime.

Result

The dark UI is designed to reduce eye strain and enhance visibility in surgical environments, supporting focus with a clear visual hierarchy across three workflow stages: Planning, Surgery and Finish. Critical information like time and patient data remains persistently visible. Surgeons can manage and route multiple live video feeds, with intuitive controls for recording and streaming. Essential tools are accessible via a glove-friendly sidebar, while a bottom panel provides quick access to key functions. The interface supports case and patient management with sortable tables and thumbnail previews for media. Designed for touch interaction, the UI uses consistent iconography, color coding and status indicators to enhance usability and prevent errors.